There are many occasions where a consumer may want to be notified when his credit card or the like is used. For example, he may want to know when his credit card account number has been used to purchase a large screen television for $5000 on the Internet, when the account number is used outside the U.S. to purchase airplane tickets, or when his child uses the account number or credit card to purchase alcohol.
A consumer may be notified by the issuer that issued his credit card when the issuer determines a potentially fraudulent activity has occurred in a purchase with the consumer's credit card. The issuer may contact the consumer using the contact information it has on file for the consumer, which is typically a consumer's home phone and address. For example, the issuer may call the consumer at his home phone number or send a letter to his home address informing the consumer that potentially fraudulent or unauthorized activity is taking place. However, the consumer may not be at home or may not answer the phone and a letter may take a few days to arrive at the consumer's home. Further, the activity may occur in the early hours of the morning outside of the issuer's business hours and when the consumer does not want to receive a call. For example, if a potentially fraudulent purchase is made with the consumer's credit card at 2 a.m. in the morning, the consumer may be asleep. Thus, conventional notification methods may not be very effective for notifying the consumer of potentially fraudulent or unauthorized credit card activity.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems individually and collectively.